India announces minorities quota ahead of key state polls

Dec 23, 2011, 7:51 GMT

New Delhi - The Indian government has approved a quota for minority groups in government jobs and state-run educational institutions, officials said Friday.

A cabinet meeting chaired by Premier Manmohan Singh Thursday night set aside a 4.5-per-cent share for minorities within an existing 27-per-cent quota reserved for a caste grouping known as other backward classes.

Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians form the main minorities in India.

'The quota which has been announced was one of our main campaign promises in the 2009 national elections,' Digvijay Singh, a senior leader from the ruling Indian National Congress party, told reporters in New Delhi.

'This is merely a political gimmick on the part of the Congress to woo Muslim minorities ahead of the assembly poll,' founder of the All India Muslim Forum Nehalluddin Ahmed told The Times Of India daily, referring to forthcoming elections in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The change will come into effect on January 1.

Although the constitution does not make any provision for reservations on basis of religion, nine Indian states have over recent years implemented such sub-quotas for minorities.

Muslims comprise about 13 per cent of India's 1.2-billion population and surveys show that they are under-represented in almost all spheres of public and professional life.